Beautiful Ruins

While I was on my semi-annual, Tennessee book store shopping spree, I bought a new book mark and the quote on it is "Life is like a good book, the further you get into it the more it begins to make sense". Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter is epitomizes that quote. It is that good book.
Back in 1962, during the filming of Cleopatra, a young actress is told that she is dying of stomach cancer and is sent to stay at a tiny hotel in an isolated Italian town. The hotels owner, Pasquale Tursi, is instantly smitten with this beautiful blonde American, Dee Moray.
Flash forward to Hollywood in 2007, and an old Italian man wanders around the lot of a movie studio searching for a woman that he has not seen or heard from in nearly 50 years. The story follows Pasquelle and the group of people randomly joined together in the search for Dee Morray, who seemingly disappeared in 1962.
I thought that this book was fantastic. The writing was beautiful, the story captivating. The very first chapter fills you with questions, and the further you get into the book "the more it begins to make sense". Each chapter takes you through a different story, and you are slowly able to piece together the past.
Centered around Cleopatra, Walter takes a real event and real people and creates a fictional story that comes alive. There were times that I jumped on IMDB because I started to wonder if the story was true.
This is definitely a book I recommend, and have in fact already passed it along. It is unpredictable, yet believable. Easily one of the best books I have read in a while.